oklahoma city bombing

april 19, 1995

the day after i turned five. i woke up pretty happy, who wouldn't be happy about turning five?! as we were sitting in the kitchen getting ready to eat, my parents turned on the small television that sat above our microwave/convection oven, and proceeded to hear the most terrible news.

at approximately 9:02 a.m. cst, a truck full of explosives detonated in front of the alfred p. murrah federal building in oklahoma city, oklahoma. the explosion killed 168 people and injured over 850. as if the deaths weren't bad enough, nineteen of these victims were either children or babies, many of whom were present in the building's daycare facility at the time of detonation.

this of course was one of the largest acts of terrorism to hit the u.s. in recent years . . . . a word that would eventually (albeit unfortunately) become part of the everyday american lexicon. we were shocked . . . . the country was shocked . . . . the world was shocked. things like this should never happen. in a perfect world, they wouldn't. but unfortunately . . . . in a world where perfection remains an ultimate goal . . . . imperfection remains an undeniable constant.

no matter how much we try to protect ourselves, we can't always do the trick. we can however, try a little harder. everyone should take the effort to try and do a better job. because if enough people try, then maybe we can do it. maybe we can make this world a better place. there was no reason for those people to die . . . . there was no reason for all of those children to suffer . . . . there was no reason for images like this:
today we remember those people that died . . . . we remember those children that were so tragically murdered . . . . but most of all, we remember that life is very fragile. for at any given moment, it can be taken away from us. we should enjoy all of our hours . . . . our minutes . . . . our seconds. we should savor our time spent with loved ones. but more importantly, we should take it upon ourselves to clean this world up. to rid ourselves of hate, violence, and crime. we should take a stand for all of man.

and now we have reached my number in years,

to twenty we go.